Accidents happen
by CassandraHolly
Summary: "Gi, I think I..." Tom gulped and started crying. "I think I broke Dougie's arm." Requested by Katie
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Yet another Childish!Dougie anfiction. I'M SORRY I CAN'T HELP IT. He just turns into this seven year old in all my fics :') One of these days I'll write a Macho!Dougie, where he has a six pack and huuuge guns -flexes muscles-**

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><p>Tom woke up and instantly regretted it. Rolling over on his other side, the blonde closed his eyes and tried to drift off in to sleep again.<p>

_Tap._

Sighing, he shifted again and settled further in to the fluffy pillows.

_Taptap._

And if that stupid tapping disturbed him one more time, he would hunt down the offending tapper and make sure he never tapped again.

_Tipptaptap._

"Yes?" Tom groaned, not bothering to look over at his door. He heard the small creak as the door opened, but there was no reply.

"What?" He grunted, annoyed. Hearing no answer, Tom sighed again and lifted himself up on one elbow, squinting through the dark to the door where a small shadow stood.

"What is it?"

The small shadow appeared to clear his throat.

"Um."

Tom waited.

"Nothing, I guess." The shadow turned to go, but Tom wasn't having it.

"You woke me up at-" Looking at the red light up clock on the wall, "-One in the morning to tell me nothing? Get over here."

The shadow hesitated.

"I said, get your skinny ass over here!"

The shadow hurried to obey. As he neared, Tom could vaguely make out the small, rounded feautures on Dougie's face.

"Right." Now that Tom was in control, his voice took a softer tone. "What is it?"

Dougie. Small, innocent, and-

"I had a bad dream."

Incredibly annoying.

"Oh jeez. Another one?"

Dougie nodded, chewing his lip.

"Well couldn't you have just done what you always do? You know, scream in to your pillow and cry yourself back to sleep but not disturb _me_?"

The silence after that was short, but long enough for Tom to regret saying something so harsh.

"Dougie-"

"No. Go back to sleep."

"Oh, come on-"

"I'll be in my room if you need me. Crying myself to sleep. Not that you care, you need to get your rest, right?" Dougie turned back to the door.

"Dougie!"

Dougie didn't get far, as Tom instantly reached out and grabbed Dougie's skinny wrist, yanking it back towards the bed. With a resounding crack, Dougie fell on to Tom's lap.

Shit.

"Shit." Tom muttered. Dougie didn't move. Tom still held his small wrist in one hand, and he was sure that the crack had sounded from that wrist.

"Dougie, are you-"

Dougie whimpered and curled up in a small ball, snatching his arm back from Tom and cradling it to his chest.

"Dougie, let me see your wrist." When Tom sensed no movement from Dougie, he opted for physical force. Of course, the sound Dougie's wrist had made should have prevented him from violence, but of course Tom didn't think of that. So, being Tom, he grabbed Dougie's arm and pulled; Dougie reacted by screaming in pain and flinching away. The scream subsided in to sobs that wracked Dougie's small body, and Tom panicked. Snatching the phone off the shelf over his bed, Tom tried to figure out what the hell he was thinking when he agreed to stay with Dougie after Harry went to visit his family and Danny was on holiday with his girlfriend.

As the phone rang, Tom cautiously patted Dougie's shaking back. For some reason, his stomach seemed to disappear when Dougie arched his back to avoid Tom's touch.

"Hello?" A female's sleepy voice came from the phone.

"Gi, it's Tom."

"I know."

"Can you come over?"

"Why? It's one in the morning, hun..."

"I. um. I think I-"

"Is someone crying, Tom?"

Gio sounded more alert when the phone picked up Dougie's whimpers. Tom finally felt the pressure of the night's events on his shoulders.

"Gi, I think I..." Tom gulped and started crying. "I think I broke Dougie's arm."

Tom paced the living room. Gio had promised to be at the house in ten minutes, and had instructed Tom to wrap an ice pack around Dougie's wrist until she arrived. Tom had tried, but Dougie had just kicked him when he had tried to touch him, so Tom just left it by the smaller boy's head. There was a knock at the door and Tom ran to answer it. Outside was a small, tired looking woman.

"Oh, Gi, thank god, I just-"

"Shh." Gio hugged Tom briefly, then looked past him.

"Where's Dougie?"

"He's upstairs in my room."

Tom watched apprehensively as Gio sat by Dougie and placed a hand on his shoulder. He was curled up in a foetal position, faced away from them. the sobs had quieted down; Tom could just make out a subtle shaking in Dougie's skinny shoulders.

"Dougie?" Gio murmured. Dougie sniffed. Obviously the fact that it wasn't Tom made Dougie listen; Tom tried to ignore the jealousy.

"Dougie, babe, it's OK. Come on." Slowly. Gio lifted Dougie into her lap. "Come on, honey. Let me see it." Slowly, Gi rubbed Dougie's back with one hand and took his wrist in the other, massaging it slowly. She rubbed her fingers over it and kissed Dougie;'s hair, then looked at Tom.

"Broken," She mouthed.

Tom put his head in his hands. What had he done?


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't even have anything to say right now so yeah go ahead read it whatever.**

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><p>"You can go in, now." The nurse spoke quietly- after all, it <em>was <em>the middle of the night, and everyone in the waiting room was half asleep.

Tom stood up, murmuring something- a thanks, or maybe not, but who cares, he just broke his friend's arm- and walked into the small room he'd watched Dougie stumble into earlier on.

Dougie was sitting in the center of a large hospital bed, cradling his bandaged arm in his good one. His knees were under his chin, and his eyes were drooping; the excitement had worn him out, big time.

Tom moved over and sat down next to him. Dougie cracked open one eye, appraising him, then closed it again, sighing mournfully.

"You aright now?"

Stupid question.

"No."

Honest answer.

"I'm sorry."

"Cool."

"You don't forgive me, do you."

"Not really."

Huh. No messing around, then. Tom hadn't really expected that; Dougie usually took 'beating around the bush' to the extremes, the extremes being when somebody finishes the answer for him and he just shrugs.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"No."

"...Oh."

Sensing Tom's obvious discomfort, Dogie sighed again and opened his eyes, angling his head to stare directly at him. "Tom, you told me when I moved in that if I ever felt homesick then to just come to you, whatever time, whatever place. I finally built up the courage to come and talk, and you _broke my arm_. So, I don't really appreciate your 'I'll do anything' speech because chances are, if I ask you for so much as a painkiller you'll snap my leg in two."

"-Dougie!"

"Look, Tom." Dougie raised his head and narrowed his eyes. "I'm _done _with being the baby. You broke my _fucking arm_, I'm not going to forgive you just because you buy me an ice cream or take me to the park!"

"Dougie, please-"

"Oh, just fuck off." Dougie was suddenly turning away, shaking his head and sneering. "I don't even want to- ugh, just go away."

"No." Tom leaned over and pulled his head back around to face him. "Hear me out."

"Why should I? How the _shit_ are you going to justify this?"

Tom glanced at the huge bandage that went up to his elbow and closed his eyes.

"I'm not. But everybody makes mistakes. And I _know _that sounds like a lame excuse, I _know _that sounds like a pile of bullshit- but just give me another chance. _Please._"

When Dougie just carried on glaring at him, he carried on, desperate now. "I'll- I'll get sleeping tablets, stop the nightmares... I'll tell the guys to stop taking the piss when you have one. I'll, um, I'll buy you anything-"

"You think you can buy me out?"

"Oh, shit, no I didn't-" He frowned suddenly. "What are the nightmares about?"

"Why would I tell you that?"

"Just tell me."

Dougie watched him, then his face turned calculating and he spoke. "They're about my dad, hitting my mum. About me and my sister hiding under my bed, about him dragging me out and... they're about him leaving, mum trying to find him even though he beat us- her up. about her leaving me and my sister on our own for days on end, then appearing with no money, about the bullies, about everything, and now they'll be about you because you hurt me too, and everyone hurts me cause nobody cares and they lie and- and-" Dougie had started out the speech with the intent of making Tom feel as bad as possible, but it ended in him crying, so Tom pulled him into a fierce hug, and moved his lips down to Dougie's ear.

"I'll tell you how I'm going to repay you, Dougs." He whispered. "I'm going to be there for you, everyday, everywhere, no matter what. This-" He motioned to the bandaged limb. "This was a flunk, a mistake, a huge, shitty fuck up, an accident. Well accidents happen, but that one'll never happen again._ I'm_ going to be your dad now, and I will never leave you- do you hear me?"

Dougie nodded slowly, and Tom closed his eyes and held on to the boy, swearing then and there to never fuck up as far as Dougie was concerned, ever, _ever _again.

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><p>Seven years later, Tom opens the door to see Dougie outside- 23, still small and breakable- with tear tracks on his face. "She left me, Tom." He whispers.<p>

Tom grabs him by the shoulder and (gently Tom, remember the arm?) tugs him _gently _into his house, picking up the bag on the step and closing the door firmly. He leads him up to the spare room, the one that had been a crucial part of the house when they bought it- ('I don't care how big the house is, Gi, as long as it has a spare room.' She had nodded understandingly, thinking of That Night, of Dougie) and sits him on the bed; Gi walks past, sees him, goes downstairs and turns the kettle on. Tom hugs him fiercely, moving his lips down to Dougie's ear.

"She was a flunk, a mistake, a huge, shitty fuck up. But accidents happen, Dougs, and that one will sure as _hell _never happen again."


End file.
